We have recently received a number of your direct mail "Renewable, Recyclable and Powerful" postcard packs, Volume 2. We are a communication design studio of 9 people - the UK average sized studio in fact. Like a lot of design studios we work in an open plan office so receiving FOUR of your postcard packs felt rather excessive and annoyingly wasteful considering your message and particularly as one was addressed to an ex-employee.
We have therefore decided to return three of these packs to you for re-use (though even as I write this letter there has been no success in obtaining a postal address). As a lobby group for the National Association of Paper Merchants who claim compliance with PAS 2020 I would suggest that your direct mail should follow two simple rules in order that it does not undermine its message:
Firstly – make sure your mailing list is up to date. This will stop you sending out multitudes of mail to people who no longer exist, or overload the mailbox of a studio unnecessarily. Secondly – if your piece is delivered to the wrong destination it has the chance to be re-used (remember the age old mantra of re-use before recycle) by including a return address on the outside, halting its painful and wasteful journey straight into the recycling bin (if its lucky).
Whilst we at thomas.matthews believe in the power and impact of great print, we fundamentally believe in sustainable thinking and efficiency in every decision from concept to delivery.
Last week’s Greenpeace newsletter had another one of their arresting headlines: “Activists are stopping climate destruction now! Early today 13 activists locked down cranes at one of the largest pulp and paper mills in the world.” With the UK still being a major importer of illegal timber and the global pulp and paper industry in the top 5 polluters, we cannot shrug off our industry’s part in this story.
Let’s look at the impact of print and no better place to start than with paper. No matter what your paper choice is, this will be a big chunk of the footprint for your piece of print.
Currently the overwhelming trend in sustainable print design is in specifying FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council, www.fsc.org)-accredited papers. This is miles better than a virgin stock (a paper stock with no recycled content) where there is no record of where the wood pulp has originated from – as is being highlighted by the Greenpeace campaign. What this ‘chain of custody’ system does not reflect is the carbon impact of paper, which is important when some FSC pulps are shipped from places like Brazil and ends up being a sizeable chunk of your print’s carbon footprint. By choosing a post-consumer recycled paper stock you can bring down your carbon footprint from between 30% up to a whopping 70%. Imagine the size of the Daily Mirror’s footprint if their newsprint wasn’t from a recycled stock sourced in the UK.
With this in mind it was interesting but ultimately disappointing to read in last week’s Printweek environmental newsletter that the paper company UPM will be supplying 9 million sheets of copy paper to the United Nation’s Climate Change talks in Copenhagen. My disappointment does not come from the choice of company; UPM’s credentials have rigorous environmental targets. My dismay originates from the type of paper chosen. UPM’s ‘Future’ grade (with a strapline that states ‘the best future ever’) seems to have good creds when it comes to chain of custody, including FSC, PEFC and the EU Eco-labels so no wood pulp from Indonesia. But why, when the eyes of the world watch and scrutinise this conference, would you default back to a virgin paper stock? Surely this would be one place where we could exemplify the great qualities of a paper that has been out in the world before and has returned as a new white (though maybe not ultra blue-white) stock, ready to be recycled into a new stock again. And following this how satisfying would it be to receive a piece of paper knowing that it had been recycled from the past papers of this conference, that had fulfilled its work relaying all the important information with clarity and when it had done its task had been recycled and remade ready for its next important job. Future paper’s specification is literally blinding – “an ultra-smooth, high-white paper for accurate and dazzling colour reproduction” with as far as I can see not a jot of recycled content contained within it.
Here at t.m we are continuously amazed how some of our more enlightened clients that boast extensive environmental management policies do not extend such regulations through to their marketing and print. It may seem to be a small issue swimming among the bigger fish but it’s the one that most will see. It must, more than anything, set the sustainable benchmark as a standard and show that companies hold true to their environmental ambitions even through to their choice of paper.
Knowing what I do about the energy cost of virgin paper and the potential saving from using a post-consumer stock, and adding concern by campaign groups like Greenpeace, I wonder what kind of message they are sending with this choice. I imagine there are other economics involved here as 9 million A4 sheets constitutes a lot of paper (and water – an average sheet of A4 paper can contain up to 10 litres of the stuff), but is it really crucial to have such a high specification?
In the end it seems to come down to why whiteness is so important. I am left wondering if this paper was chosen as part of a secret plan that renders the conference delegates so blinded by the frightening statistics printed on this ultra white paper stock that they are moved to take immediate and drastic action to halt global melt down. I hope so.
Ration Me Upis a monthly Carbon Ration Book created by The Ministry of Trying to Do Something About It (and designed by thomas.matthews). It was launched at NEF's 'the Bigger Picture Festival of Independence' in October and is on its way to Copenhagen for the Climate summit in December. www.theministryoftryingtodosomethingaboutit.org
There was a time when such a Ministry and such a book needed not to exist – but that day has passed.
Now, at the end of the first decade in the 21st Century we are speeding towards troubled times and uncertain futures. But it is times like these that demand us to come together with a united response so that we can attempt to limit the damage of many wasteful years. If we now try to put right our wrongs, tea can be drunk and life can be enjoyed once again.
In anticipation we have prepared this monthly ration book to teach each us all of the true cost of our day to day necessities and habits. We recommend that you become accustomed to its content and tasks associated with calculating your monthly carbon usage. For it may well be that in the future, if we do stand true to our country’s commitment of reducing our carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, such rationing will be enforced.
The upcoming years may be painful and troublesome but if we use this book as a tool to remind us that action must be taken now, by government, by business, by countries, by all, then we stand a chance of happiness. Use it to evaluate your life, use it to lobby your government, use it as a reminder that doing absolutely nothing is no longer an option.
Stand strong and save.
Yours,
Sophie Thomas
A Minister for the Ministry of Trying to Do Something About It
The Ministry of Trying to Do Something About It are:
Clare Patey – Artist
thomas.matthews – Communication design
Cathy Wren – Installation Designer
Dr Victoria Johnson – Research
Corrina Cordon – Project Manager nef
Jonathan Atkinson – Project development and management
Jenny Hayton – Costume Advisor
Tim Mitchell – Construction
The Useful Simple Trust launched with a big party at the Village Underground last Thursday. The great and the good came together under a large domed light to help us celebrate and hear more about the venture.
We created a series of limited edition prints based around the usefulness of a simple orange bowl. Members of the studio were invited to contribute by either illustrating, screenprinting or letterpressing on top of the bowl image to create something amazing.
Useful Simple is a trail-blazing endeavour. It operates through pioneering design projects, as innovators in design education, and through real-world activities in sustainability and communication. It offers an alternative to profit focused, socially unaware business models and opens the door to the new and the good.
The Useful Simple Trust is an employee benefit trust. So far it comprises 45 beneficiaries, 7 trustees and 3 companies: thomas.matthews, Expedition Engineering and Think Up.
With an exciting programme of speakers tackling design and sustainability you can't afford to miss this year's LDF sustainability hub free event. One week to go, and places are filling up!
We had fun with the crowd at the V&A Village Fete Jubilee making and showcasing London's most talented sock puppets. Young and old got to grips with their inner Sock Stars.
